Texas Tech School of Theatre and Dance is presenting Much Ado About Nothing. Director of the production, Dr. Bill Gelber—Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance—joins The Front Row to discuss the upcoming production.
How did it come about that Much Ado About Nothing came into the lineup of plays for this year.
The committee met last year actually and they were trying to figure out the whole season. I think this is one of those plays that really fits into all the things that they were doing. I’ve noticed since that there are a number of different universities and professional groups that are doing Much Ado, so it must be in the air.
How did it happen that you came to direct it?
I was asked to direct it and I was thrilled. I was actually on sabbatical at the time when I found out, so that was a nice surprise for the day. The last Shakespeare we did, I did. I was the director and I was happy to be back working with his words and those situations and those plays.
Shakespeare is special. It’s its own thing, right?
That’s right, there are directors that pride themselves on trying to do every single one of the canon. I think there’s 36 or 37 plays, so good luck to them. But the comedies are particularly fun for me to do because in Shakespeare’s comedies there’s usually a combination of drama and comedy. This one in particular, I think you could say it fits the definition of comedy as tragedy averted.
I think there’s some dark places that it goes in the second act. We’re really hoping that everything works out. But boy oh boy, since it’s comedy you know it does, but they keep you guessing for a while.
How do you approach casting something like a Shakespeare play?
One of the nice things is, I look for really good actors and then we can work on all of the rest of it. One of my jobs at the university is, I teach period styles. I teach the Shakespeare class and I teach people about the verse and how to use it. I teach people to connect to classic material in ways that still are relevant today. That’s part of my job.
So when I have a chance to do something like Shakespeare, I try to find those connections for the students. I also work with them on how to speak the verse because there are a few rules that you can teach them. And their natural ability is also important to me. So they have to be right for the roles and at the same time able to go to those places the characters need to go.
Listen to the full interview at the top of the article.
